Meat from Locked-Up Elk Donated to Food Bank in Idaho

Two locked-up elk bucks provided 1,017 pounds of meat for a local food bank in Idaho.

Two huge bull elk in Idaho that died after getting their antlers locked while fighting will not go to waste.

A 6×6 and a 6×8 bull elk became hopelessly locked up while fighting during the early part of the rut on Sept. 18 near Wolf Lodge, Idaho. Their antlers got tangled in a barbed wire fence during the fight, which was what eventually doomed the two huge animals.

“I’ve lived here all my life and never seen anything remotely like that,” rancher Joe Lenz, the man who found the elk, told reporters.

Lenz came across the animals in a pasture owned by his family that is frequented by large herds of elk.

“I’d say there was about 50 pounds of wire tangled in their antlers alone.”

When Lenz found the two elk, one was already dead. Lenz put the other dying elk out of its misery.

In addition to getting tangled in barbed wire, both elk received multiple gore injuries from the other’s antlers.

Idaho Fish and Game officials were called out to the scene and soon after cutting through all the barbed wire, they salvaged 1,017 pounds of meat. This meat was delivered to a local food bank.

“They were big animals, probably 1,200 or more pounds or more on the hoof apiece,” Lenz told reporters. “They were bigger than most any hunter would take in a lifetime.”

The antlers from the elk will hopefully be salvaged and made available during a fur auction the agency holds in the spring.